Russia accuses West

NEW DELHI: Russia has advised the United States of America to use its influence on the Ukrainian authorities to force them to fully comply with the Minsk agreements instead of "forcing aggressive rhetoric" and "pumping" the Armed Forces of Ukraine with various types of weapons.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had, "at the initiative of the American side", held a telephone conversation with the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken on Tuesday where both sides discussed the possibilities for further work on security assurances.

"An exchange of views was continued on issues of providing legal guarantees for ensuring Russia's security in the context of the written reaction submitted by the US and NATO to the relevant draft international legal agreements submitted to them earlier," said the Russian Foreign Ministry in a statement.

"The Minister emphasised the imperative nature of our demands to faithfully adhere to the obligation of all OSCE countries not to strengthen their security at the expense of the security of others, including the non-expansion of NATO and the non-deployment of strike weapons near Russian borders," it added.

Moscow said that during the consideration of the bilateral agenda, Lavrov pointed out the unacceptability of "Washington's destructive line of restricting the activities of Russian diplomatic missions in the United States" and intensify the search for ways to remove these "irritants".

Russia on Tuesday also released the text of Lavrov's message "on the subject of the indivisibility of security", sent on January 28 to his counterparts from the US, Canada and a number of European countries.

The Kremlin revealed that it remains "seriously concerned" about the growth of military-political tension in the immediate vicinity of its western borders and the responses of the US and NATO to its proposals received on January 26, 2022 testify to "significant differences in the understanding of the principle of equal and indivisible security" fundamental to the entire European security architecture. (IANS)

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